The Nomad Stars
The Nomad Stars is a vast gulf of space to the trailing edge of the Carthax sector, large enough to be classified as a subsector but so unexplored and poorly understood it defies classification. It exists in the twilight zone between the Carthax and Kamal sectors, and until less than a millennia ago was completely cut off from Imperial space by terrible warp storms. When a passage in these warp storms opened, now known as the Throat, mankind flooded in to plunder its bountiful riches. Early explorers discovered things that defied belief - ancient human colonies, archeotech from millennia past, unknown alien species and riches beyond mortal comprehension. Mankind set about plundering this untapped wealth, funneling it back into the Carthax Sector, fueling war and lining pockets of the Carthaxian elite for generations. Despite its unimaginable value to the Imperium, there is no Imperial presence in the Nomad Stars - all attempts to secure and colonise planets in the name of the God-Emperor have been fraught with peril and calamity. Rival Rogue Traders engage in bloody conflict for the most valuable resources, roaming bands of Chaos mauraders put supply lines to the torch, Xenos (both known and unknown) prowl the darkness between the stars, and even the ground beneath your feet holds untold dangers from civilisations thought long dead. Lawlessness is a way of life in the Nomads - the strong prevail and the weak are pushed aside. As a result, it attracts all manner of wealthy, powerful or independent organisations looking to make a name or coin for themselves - Rogue Traders, Chartist Captains, Adeptus Mechanicus factions, the Imperial Navy and even the Inquisition all have interests in or around the Nomad Stars. Although actual cartography of the Nomads is sketchy at best, outright lies at worst, Imperial organisations have managed to break up the subsector into smaller Domains, based on their own personalities, inhabitants and perils. The Orthesian Expedition All the information presented in this section of the Carthax Wiki is provided largely from the perspective of the Orthesian Dynasty, a Rogue Trader RP group setting foot in the Nomad Stars for the first time. Information may be incomplete, conflicting or a matter of opinion of the Dynasty Explorers. You can keep up-to-date of the players' trials and tribulations at the Orthesian Herald. Anything in-character submitted by players will be presented using Block Quote '''formatting and '''Italics and will appear in articles like this; "Freeman: The information on this world is incomplete - we should send an Explorator team here to gather basic information and assess if it is worth us following up." Domains of the Nomad Stars Trying to quantify and codify the sheer vastness and variety of stellar phenomena within the Nomad Stars would be a mission of insanity. Those that have been mapped vary greatly depending on who mapped them, often causing great conflicts of interest and logistical headaches. Scholars have managed to agree on one thing, however - breaking down the Nomad Stars into regions separated by warp tides or some other natural border. These are known as Domains, and they are broken down as follows, listed in order of how explored they are; * The Basin: What you run into when you exit the Throat into the Nomad Stars. It has been pretty thoroughly explored by Rogue Traders already, and are likely a large number of existing colony worlds or installations already set up. * Skylar's Lie: The most profitable worlds have already been claimed by Rogue Trader Othello Skylar, and although this domain is shared with dozens (if not hundreds) of other organisations, any that get too profitable are rewarded with a visit by him. * Hatchling Worlds: Rogue Trader Van Arkiel attempted to turn this into his own Skylar's Lie, but it fell apart. There are lots of abandoned efforts here across swathes of dangerous and corrupted worlds, and many Rogue Traders have attempted to pick up the pieces since. * Heathen Trail: Filled with lots of worlds suitable for human life, already populated by humans unenlightened by the Imperial Truth. * Quiet Dark: An impoverished region once thought to be all the Nomad Stars had to offer before the Throat opened up. It has attracted an influx of traders and pirates looking elsewhere from the bloody feuding of Skylar's Lie * Light's End: Vast and uncharted domain into which few have voyaged and returned. The clusters of stars that have been discovered all seemingly died together in unnatural cataclysms and misfortunes. * Howling Vortex: Enticing warp currents that can wreck even the most seasoned navigators. Ghost ships have been sighted drifting amidst the Howling Vortex, their hulls as pale as carved stone. * The Void Sea: A lesser warp storm spun off from the great storms of the leading edge. Its baleful churning is often viewed as a warning against further exploration. * Twin Fangs Nebula: A domain comprising of a string of star embers surrounded by shells of thinned star-matter cast out from their ancient demise. Patrolled ruthlessly by an Ork empire. * Yothmore Shroud: Almost completely uncharted. Here be monsters. The Basin The Basin is the Domain nearest Imperial civilisation, a relatively calm delta from the Throat - the safest and most accessible route in and out of the Nomad Stars. All the low-hanging fruit has plucked by adventurers and traders over the years. Often these sections are never revisited by wanderers, making it the perfect hiding place for pirates and hoarders. The Pail A barren system nearby Mercy, noted only for its habit of disgorging ship carcasses from the Throat, some of which have been ground up by the roiling riptides of the warp for centuries. Telos The star of the Telos system is a primal raging stellar mass, making the entire system inhospitable. The only feature of the system is the relatively neutral (and only) port of call in the Nomad Stars - Mercy. Mercy “Every Imperial port has its own special charm and appeal - Mercy’s seems to be its complete lack of either.” Mercy is a tethered network of hundreds of stone structures built into a clutch of asteroids and protected from the star's fury by layers of void shields. It is a rough and uncivilised locale, where the mighty rule by force of arms and the weak scrabble to survive. Skylar's Lie Named after the infamous Rogue Trader Maximillian Skylar who mapped the stars in early M41. One of the most explored and exploited regions, delivering both fabulous riches and early deaths in equal measure. One of the most haphazardly charted domains. There are numerous charted warp routes into Skylar’s Lie, many of them attributed to the legendary Maximillian Skylar himself. Of course, the veracity of these charts it dubious at best, and this is a realm where fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye. Gallionic Gallionic is a death world of roaring storms, jungles, and strange beasts. It is no place for humans, as the steaming rain alone eats at metal and breeds strange fungus on exposed flesh, and the sap dripping from plants is lethal or viciously toxic. Gangue Three blasted worlds orbiting a sickly pulsar, a halo of detritus populating the outer rim. The prophetic resting place of the fabled treasure ship, The Rightful Remit. Seldon's Folly This once-beautiful world has been reduced to a smouldering, crater-filled warzone. Where the land is not poisoned it is radioactive, and the skies are clouded with chemical weapons and blackened by the smoke of charnel fires. Tenebrose Tenebrose is a desolate world of ash and charred bone. It is a world, tales say, murdered for greed and spite. The Beacon An abandoned space station of Mechanicus origin but unknown purpose, now owned and run by a rogue Astropath called Mistress Clarity, who has a small but powerful band of castaways and renegades to operate her own Astropathic Choir. Hatchling Worlds Although close to the entrance of the Nomad Stars, it was not visited by Imperial vessels until several centuries after the opening of the Throat. Described as a cursed place of sudden warp storms, temporal distortion and strange stellar phenomena. Littered with the corpses of a thousand failed attempts to colonise or tame its riches. Even known routes in this region are prone to sudden, violent warp storms, and so the Hatchling Worlds are often given wide berth, despite their proximity to the Throat. These worlds play host to a myriad of strange and unique phenomena, time and space twisting because of the whirl of the nearby Great Warp Storms. Bilge Bilge is home to renegades and scum of the worst kind - Chaos raiders live in clans burrowed deep beneath the black mountains and acid seas. Only a few attempts have been made to cleanse Bilge once and for all. None have succeeded. Cilice Beneath the stormy skies of Cilice is a stark, beautiful landscape of twisting peaks and jagged valleys that was once dotted with the proud structures of a holy colony founded under the authority of Rogue Trader Van Arkiel. Cairn A barren system, noted only for its stable warp currents and a single, slate-grey planet that hosts a small mountain of flags, banners, standards and votive tokens. Deluge The wet grasslands and high plateaus of Deluge once held a clutch of research colonies that found nothing of interest except strange structures deep in the jungle. Nothing was heard again from the colonies except a garbled astropathic message that raved about pale figures in the rain. Khako This arid death world is infamous for its mercury geysers and its training ground for Baron Scourge's soldiers and mercenaries. Redemption A vast cemetery covers the surface of Redemption, dedicated to a heretical teaching of the Imperial Creed. A blockade was set up around this blasphemous planet by the Ecclesiarchy, but what secrets are being kept there are subject only to wild and ominous rumours. Heathen Trail A diffuse Domain of old stars, filled with human societies long separated from the greater body of humanity. They know nothing of the divine light of the God-Emperor, and have strange cultures harbouring strange technologies. Sobek Sobek is said to be a world of red deserts, gleaming turquoise seas and great cities of copper towers, enameled domes, and sprawling buildings covered in brightly coloured tiles of glass, metal, and ceramic. Quiet Dark Once thought to be the total of the Nomad Stars during the early days of discovery, a small domain short on natural resources and exploitable assets. When the Throat opened up, the Quiet Dark was abandoned. In the past few decades it has picked up an influx of traders and pirates looking elsewhere from the bloody feuding in Skylar’s Lie. The reduced profits from such an impoverished region are a small price to pay for the freedom and constant fighting found elsewhere. Mercutia's Anvil Covered with laboratories and forges of unknown purpose, this world laid abandoned for some time before its rediscovery, and whispers abound in the Nomads of lost technology and a Dark Age civilization sleeping beneath its surface. Light's End A vast and uncharted Domain into which few have voyaged and returned. It is a common belief among voidfarers that all the evil and corruption in the Nomads emanated from here. All that has been officially charted are clusters of stars that seemingly died together in unnatural cataclysms, misfortunes, destroyed by ghost-vessels or ravening xenos. Chital A cursed feral world and a mantle of dust would be all the Chital system had to offer were it not for the strange, clockwork appearance of a space hulk known as the Chital Vaults. Howling Vortex A mass of subtly sliding drifts and beguiling currents in the warp that can lead the most seasoned navigator astray and carve apart the hulls of ships that dare their tides. It is said ghost ships have been sighted drifting among the Howling Vortex, their hulls as pale as carved stone. The Void Sea A lesser warp storm spun off from the great storms of the leading edge. Its baleful churning is often viewed as a warning against further exploration. Twin Fangs Nebula A domain comprising of a string of star embers surrounded by shells of thinned star-matter cast out from their ancient demise. Patrolled ruthlessly by an Ork empire. Yothmore Shroud The name given to the ragged, nameless embers that drift on the very fringes of the Nomad Stars. Everything died a long time ago in some vast sweeping catastrophe, now shrouded by the cast-off gases of their destruction. Dire things sit in silence and await the coming of mankind. Organisations and dynasties active in the Nomad Stars Fel Dynasty Lead by a seasoned explorer and cunning exponent of the arts of trade and exploitation, the Fel Dynasty seeks out both low-hanging fruit and rare resources on far-flung planets and leases out harvesting rights to third parties. Glaw Household Once specialists in extortion, slavery and blackmail, the Glaw Household are now an estate in decline, their interests being disassembled piecemeal by the various enemies they have made over the generations. House Beefington The Beefington fortune is built on one thing: muscle. Both from vat-grown meat from their huge farms to chem-hanced thugs drawn from penal colonies and feral worlds. Now they make their money above board, servicing military contracts across the subsector for anyone who needs a blunt weapon to solve a problem. House Fallaset House Fallaset makes their wealth on the beast trade - capturing, killing and processing exotic beasts and vermin from across the Nomads for research, materials or blood sport, but the short-tempered Rogue Trader in charge is content to fritter away the Household's finances. House Patroneus House Patroneus command much of the Imperial Navy merchant fleet in the Onus Region and have close ties with most merchant guilds. They produce excellent seneschals and rear admirals and their officers excel at fleet logistics and administration. House Ravenula The family holds hundreds of positions of authority within the Onus Ecclesiarchy, and make the bulk of their money from the thousands of parishes and demesnes under their control. Van Arkiel Dynasty One of the oldest Rogue Trader households, present during the Age of Rebirth and rivaling only the Skylar Dynasty for power in the Nomad Stars. Their fortune was initially from privateering, now Van Arkiel is heavily invested in the Cold Trade while maintaining the leading market share on food production in Skylar's Lie. Minor and inactive dynasties House Grin House Grin no longer exist, but once upon a time they were the name in black market weaponry - anything they couldn't manufacture they could acquire for you, at great cost. =